can email accounts get viruses?

[kingdummkopf]

didn't really know where to put this as it's a question about my windows laptop.

i went on a website, and this warning appeared whilst i was on google chrome;

i am worried about my laptop becoming infected, along with my email account, as i had my gmail account open which i use on mac mail.

would my email or laptop have caught anything? what does the warning mean? that something has downloaded and chrome is stopping anything else? i don't know.

 

[jav6454]

Email accounts don't get infected. What gets infected is a message which contains the virus itself. If you are worried, run a scan of your preferred AV software.

 

[kingdummkopf]

i clicked back to safety anyway, so that page wouldn't have caused a virus or anything to appear? i've scanned my computer and both avg and microsofts anti-malware program have said my computer is clean - so am guessing there's no viruses?

and i thought email accounts could get viruses? that's why i've been hesitant of using my gmail account since that warning page appeared and gmail was open in another tab.

 

[cerote]

The security certificate for the site cannot be varified as a vailid certificate.

Not really your computer but more as in the website not using a vaild certificate.

 

[takeshi74]

what does the warning mean? that something has downloaded and chrome is stopping anything else?

No, it means what it states. If you don't understand try the "Help me understand" link or go to:
https://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=98884

The web server on my NAS also generates such an error. All it means is that the certificate isn't trusted. The site could be fine or it could be infected with malware. The message above doesn't really tell you anything about the site either way. It's just a warning issued since the certificate isn't trusted.

i clicked back to safety anyway, so that page wouldn't have caused a virus or anything to appear?

You weren't connected to the web server, so no. The message is from your browser, not the web server.

and i thought email accounts could get viruses?

The can convey virii. The account itself doesn't get infected typically.